From pole position on Friday to an exhausted but elated sideways slide through the chequered flag on Sunday Tauranga racer Ben Thomasen dominated the 2015 Polaris NZ 1000.
In a contest billed as the ultimate showdown between the new UTV or side by side (SxS) class and the high dollar big-banger race car and truck classes of offroad racing, Thomasen was the only one in the top five qualifiers to complete the race with neither reliability issues nor damage to slow his charge.
He is the first racer to win the 1000km, two-day endurance race in a UTV, a result that has the ‘new breed’ elated and a few of the old guard grumbling about ‘proper offroaders’.
The epic endurance event, which moved this year from Taupo to the south Waikato, is New Zealand’s longest and toughest offroad race.
Polaris NZ 1000 – results:
- Ben Thomasen (UTV Polaris RZ-R1000) 20 laps, 15h 37m 35.2s
- James Buchanan (Class 1 Mitsubishi Evo) 19 laps
- Steve Rowe (UTV Polaris RZ-R1000) 19 laps
